Rome (AFP) - At least 40 migrants died in the hold of a boat off Italy Saturday as the EU struggled to cope with "the worst refugee crisis since World War II", with thousands making dangerous crossings to reach Italy and Greece.

"Operation under way... many migrants saved. At least 40 dead," the Italian navy said on Twitter, while the Corriere della Sera newspaper said those who died were found in the hold of the vessel, apparently having suffocated below deck.

An Italian navy helicopter had spotted the boat, which was "overcrowded and starting to sink", about 21 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, a reporter with Italy RaiNews TV at rescue operation headquarters said.

An Italian navy patrol boat was sent to its aid at 7 am (0500 GMT) and when its sailors boarded the boat, the grim discovery was made.

"We were faced with a very emotional scene," Commander Massimo Tozzi, told the Italian news agency AGI, describing how some bodies were floating on the water.

The 312 survivors -- including 45 women and three children -- were then transferred to the Norwegian vessel Siem Pilot.

Almost 400 other migrants were picked up in the Mediterranean Saturday by other vessels taking part in the EU's patrol and rescue operation, Triton.

- 'This tragedy not the last' -

Survivors of the hazardous crossing from Libya often tell of how traffickers lock migrants in the hold -- mostly black Africans -- who pay less for the voyage.

Packed inside the confined space they not only risk drowning if the rickety boats capsize, but many are also overcome by diesel fumes.

"This tragedy will not be the last if the international community does not find a solution to the crisis in Libya," from which most of the migrants set out, Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said.

The European Union says the scale of migration, driven by war, disaster and poverty, has no parallel since the end of World War II.

"The world finds itself facing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War," EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Friday.

Italy and Greece have born the brunt of the emergency.

On the Greek island of Kos, scores of exhausted migrants, many of whom arrived on inflatable boats early Saturday, were turned away from a ferry that was due to start registering new arrivals.

- 'Vicious cycle' -

"We don't know where to go. We were told we could no longer register at the stadium" where Greek authorities were registering new arrivals this week, said Sleiman, a Syrian refugee among those gathering near the ferry in the morning.

"We are in a vicious cycle, and we keep turning round and round," he said.

UN refugee agency spokeswoman Stella Nanou said it was unclear whether registration on the ferry would begin later in the day, as authorities had announced on Friday.

Nanou also said the EU must show more "solidarity" with Greece as it struggles to handle the migrant crisis.

"For example, solidarity in terms of financial support to Greece, solidarity in terms of technical support, and solidarity in terms also of creating more legal ways for those people to reach Europe," she told AFP.

Still, hundreds of people who had registered could be seen leaving the Greek resort island on Saturday on a ferry to Athens.

But after the precarious boat trip to Kos and sleeping rough on the streets, a young Syrian man, Anas, who is travelling to Athens with his daughter, feared more hardship was to come.

"We managed to escape drowning but now we don't know what is going to happen. We came to Europe but honestly, it's all fear, it's all danger and nothing is working," said Anas, who declined to give his second name.

Earlier this week, there were some 7,000 refugees and migrants on Kos, but that number has fallen to some 2,500, according to Greek police.

More than 101,700 migrants have arrived on Italy's shores since the start of the year, with at least 2,040 others dying on the crossing, according to the latest figures issued by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

To deal with the crisis the EU is fast-tracking 2.7 million euros ($3 million) to debt-wracked Greece, which will also receive 30 million euros from a total fund of 2.4 billion euros created for all 28 EU member states to cope with migrants until 2020.

_________________The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.- misattributed to Alexis De Tocqueville

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Reuters/Reuters - Pakistani, Iranian and Afghani migrants scuffle outside the police station of the city of Kos over priority at a registration queue on the Greek island of Kos, August 15, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

By Lefteris Karagiannopoulos

KOS, Greece (Reuters) - Migrants desperate to get off the Greek island of Kos fought each other on Saturday while nearby a passenger ship chartered to house and process refugees lay empty 24 hours after it had arrived.

Outside the island's main police station, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran threw stones and exchanged blows as tempers boiled over in the intense mid-summer heat. Riot police stood by without intervening.

The migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship, the Eleftherios Venizelos, as priority is being given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants.

All have crossed the narrow stretch of water from Turkey in small boats and dinghies as they try to find a better life in Europe and leave behind either conflict or poverty.

A few hundred meters from the Kos police station, the white-painted ANEK Lines vessel remained at a quayside with only its crew aboard a day after it had docked while Greek officials debated among themselves how the Syrians should be let aboard.

Nearly a quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Of these, about half have come to the Greek islands, with numbers surging in the summer when calmer weather makes the crossing marginally less risky.

Early on Saturday, about 300 Syrians had gathered on the quayside in the hope of getting aboard the ship - a car ferry belonging to ANEK Lines which operates routes to the Greek islands and across the Adriatic to Italy - where about 2,500 people are due to be housed and processed.

The Greek government chartered the vessel to ease conditions on Kos, where several thousand migrants are staying in hotels if they can afford it, or more often sleeping in tents or the open.However, as hopes of a swift embarkation faded, the Syrians retreated from the quayside to find shade in the midday heat.

Officials from the local administration, police and Greek coast guard were discussing what to do.

"It's a team operation to find the safest solution and to gather the migrants safely. There are a great number of people," a coast guard official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not know when embarkation would start.

RIVAL CHANTS

A few hundred Asian migrants were at the police station when the brawling began, hoping to register and obtain papers which will allow them to stay temporarily in Greece. They then want to head for the mainland in the hope of finding a route to northern Europe, where more support and jobs are available than in Greece, which is in the grip of an economic crisis.

The police station was closed off on Saturday, a religious festival in Greece, but some migrants still thought those from other countries might get preferential treatment.

To rival chants of "Afghanistan!", "Pakistan!" and "Iran!", fists and stones flew. At least one man was kicked on the ground, while others wandered around with blood on their faces.

Other members of the crowd moved in to cool tempers and calm returned after several minutes of disorder. Riot police, drafted in earlier this week from the mainland to reinforce local officers on the normally tranquil holiday island, watched from the sidelines.

Later, a group of Iranians tried to break the police line blocking access to the police station. The riot police beat back the crowd with batons during the brief affray.

On Tuesday, local police used fire extinguishers and batons against migrants after violence broke out in a sports stadium where hundreds of people, including young children, were waiting for immigration papers. About 40 riot police were subsequently sent to the island to keep order.

Meanwhile, migrants kept arriving from the Turkish mainland, which lies within sight of Kos.

The coast guard said it had rescued 212 people on the island's northeastern coast who were in four inflatable dinghies and one speedboat.

As the had no valid travel documents, they were arrested for entering the country illegally and taken for questioning.

Just after dawn on Saturday, Reuters witnesses saw three dinghies each carrying around 30 to 50 people, mainly families from Syria and Iraq as well as young men, coming ashore.

Later, six men, a woman and a baby from Iran arrived, some crying and nearly fainting, after a 3-1/2 hour journey from Turkey. In the distance was another boat with about 10 men paddling with one oar and their hands.

What I find weird about all these Euro migrant stories is ZERO discussion of the cataclysmic forces that are CAUSING this sudden surge in migrants.

Perhaps you can make conclusions by the origin of the refugees: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria.

And there is no sudden surge at all.

So it goes.

You saying that the rate of migrations from these places was the same a year, two years, three years, 5 years ago? If so, what proof have you got for that?

You may be correct; the news media has a way of creating false impressions (e.g., that there has been a recent "surge" in the rate of migrants) and never actually clarifying how any given "hot story" compares to the real world and historical patterns.

But when news sources say things like "biggest crisis since WWII" it makes me suspect that the rates of migrants has increased substantially recently; whether that means the last half-year, year or two I cannot say.

But I imagine it's rather muted here compared to the southern EU countries.

Given they are all without exception economic migrants I don't have a whole lot of sympathy really for migration on this scale. Flooding the market with unskilled labour is going to be bad news for those at the bottom rung. Plus where are they going to live - house building in the UK is low due to the strict planning laws.

_________________“The gap in EU finances arising from the United Kingdom’s withdrawal and from the financing needs of new priorities need to be clearly acknowledged.” - Mario Monti

Euros need a reality check. These people are never going to "assimilate". They will just demand more and more free shit until they breed enough drones to start a jihad.They want to come to Europe so they can steal your money, rape your children, and kill you.

They have no "right" to live in Europe and Europeans don't owe them anything. Let the sons of bitches drown. Tow their boats to Eygpt or Saudi Arabia and dump them on the beach. If your house is infested with rats the first thing you do is stop feeding them.

Inviting more of them inm to destroy the brthplace of Western Civilization is suicidal insanity.

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